This invention relates in general to an electronic letter arranging device and in particular to one having utility as an aide to playing the word game SCRABBLE.RTM..
This application is related to co-pending application Ser. No. 07/926,050, filed Aug. 6, 1992, commonly assigned with the present invention.
An appendix consisting of three (3) pages of computer code written in the C programing language, including notations, is included as a part of the specification.
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright fights whatsoever.
A crossword puzzle solving electronic device in which the user enters a partial word using special characters to indicate the unknown letters is known. In such a machine, a seven letter word, for example, may be entered in which two of the letters (the second and fourth) are not known. This is a typical situation encountered while solving a crossword puzzle. When a partial word is entered, a search routine is undertaken in which the partial word is matched against every word in the set of words held in memory. For the above example, each word having the seven letters entered in that letter position is displayed on a screen. In this fashion, each possible solution for the partial word in the crossword is provided to the user. The user can then select whichever word appears to be most appropriate to the clue provided with the puzzle or to assist in solving a word that rum crosswise to a position in the partial word that has been entered.
While the cross-word puzzle solving device may be used to some degree while playing the word game SCRABBLE.RTM., the cross-word puzzle solving device requires that the user know the exact number of letters of a word to be placed. While this feature is critical to solving cross-word puzzles, it is extremely limiting with respect to playing other word games. Furthermore, the limited assistance which may be gained by using the cross-word puzzle solving device is further limited with respect to playing the SCRABBLE.RTM. word game due to its failure to consider the letters held by the player, as well as the objective of maximizing word score.
In addition, a SCRABBLE.RTM. players dictionary is available in printed form, however, the user must know, at least the first few consecutive letters of the word before he or she may use the dictionary effectively.
In playing the word game SCRABBLE.RTM. with the aid of the dictionary, therefore, not only must the player isolate a possible location on the playing board for the placement of a word, the player must also select the first letter(s) of the word to be placed. As a result, the player is limited by both his or her vocabulary, as well as ability to locate a position on the board for placing a word.
Moreover, not only must the player place a word on the playing board, the player must strategically use the letters he or she currently holds, the letters previously placed on the board, and the various word score and letter score multipliers provided on the board to maximize his or her score.